The present invention relates to a container made from a one-piece blank of pulpboard, cardboard, synthetic plastic or the like. More particularly the invention relates to a folded box comprising an elongate main body forming the side walls of the container and formed from the blank by connecting two opposite longitudinal flanges of the blank, a quadrangular end wall at one container end from which the side walls converge towards a narrow container closure at the opposite container end, one main folding line each extending from each of two diametrically opposed corners of the end wall rectilinearly towards a point of intersection at the narrow container closure, while minor fold lines extend from the two other diametrically opposed corners of the end wall.
In such known containers (German Published Application DE-OS No. 2 509 052) two minor fold lines extend similarly rectilinearly from any single corner of the end wall to the two ends of the narrow container closure. The container thus formed comprises totally plane side walls which is very convenient when jointly packing several such containers in a surrounding carton or the like, since such containers are in flush contact with one another along all contact surfaces so that no voids are formed between the containers. However, for the utilization of the internal volume of the container for packaging purposes it is sometimes less desirable that the side walls (in the region of the narrow container closure) should converge as completely plane surfaces at an angle which is usually highly acute, since as a result the interior of the container at that end thereof is available for packaging purposes only to a small extent or else not at all.
A preferred field of application of such containers designed as folded boxes is for the packing of tubes. However, at their folded-up end such tubes are not outlined by two planar surfaces either, but comprise a slight outward bulge. Accordingly, the tubes cannot fill the container interior for its full length. They must stop short at a greater or lesser distance from the narrow container closure.
It is also known (German Published Application DE-OS No. 1 807 670) in the context of a similar container for packing tubes to let one minor fold each, starting from the respective corner of the end wall, terminate as early as in the first one-third of the container length, without any further folding line proceeding to each end of the narrow container closure. However, for the major part of the container length this results in an indefinitely convex shape of the side wall whereby the appearance, the stackability when jointly packing several containers and the adaptation of the container interior to the shape of a tube is impaired.
Advantages would arise from a better utilization of the container interior, in particular in the region of the narrow container closure, while substantially retaining the advantages of the aforementioned containers.